To narrow the "digital gap," the Chinese government has pledged to upgrade infrastructure to allow more areas -- notably, impoverished rural regions -- access to faster Internet services.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in its annual plan that it will build 180,000 base stations this year to provide 3G mobile Internet service to 100 million users.

Broadband Internet services will reach an additional 25 million people, and 70 percent of broadband subscribers will have access to connection speeds of 4MBps or faster, according to the MIIT's plan.

The government also hopes to expand the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service, an integrated family broadband system, to at least 35 million additional households this year, according to the plan.

By the end of January, the number of broadband users in China stood at 177.37 million and 3G users reached 245.88 million.